Few bites

In emails, Maas, Rath and Rother expressed frustration when several news outlets declined to use the information. The U-T verified the accuracy of the documents but eventually passed because the negative elements were well in the past and didn’t involve DeMaio directly.

The LGBT Weekly became the first to report on the information on May 17 which led Rother to send an email that same day to Rath and Maas with a link to the article. The email’s subject line: “yahoo, finally!”

The publication followed up with a second article a week later and Rother wrote Rath to tell him he should point out to LGBT Weekly the other “juicy stuff” in the restraining orders.

After the June primary, in which DeMaio finished first, Rother wrote to Rath and Maas on June 12. “For now I think my job is done, the info did get out, albeit not as widely as we would have liked, and it looks like the media just won’t bite anymore,” she said.

The U-T did reference the opposition research packet in a Sept. 19 article that noted Hale’s convictions.

Spotlight San Diego paid nearly $23,000 for the research, most of which went to Rother. The rest of its spending was for the legal services of Los Angeles attorney Jim Sutton.

DeMaio referred to the project as “unfortunate games” that undermine where the focus should be: solving the problems that face the city.

“This is nothing more than the politics of personal destruction,” he said Friday. “Politics as usual. I’m proud of the campaign that we ran that focused on issues that San Diegans cared about.”

Rath said the group was interested in researching mayoral candidates and specifically interested in looking into allegations that DeMaio had falsified facts about his personal and professional life. He said the group purposely agreed to avoid electioneering activities as defined by law.

“In the end, the intensive research proved Mr. DeMaio’s story of his life and accomplishments were true — even admirable,” Rath said in an email Friday. “After the primary election, I went on to personally support candidate DeMaio’s campaign, serving on his Finance Committee and personally raising money for his race.”

Rother said that to her knowledge nothing was published by anyone involved in the project and there wasn’t any political coordination with any campaign or Sanders.

“I made it clear I would not be associated with anything but a pure information-gathering project, and I was assured that there would be a firewall between what we were doing and any campaign committee, candidate, or campaign operative,” she said in an email Friday. “Once I was finished, I stepped away, and I was told that the packet of information I produced was personally handed to reporters who would then finish the reporting by doing interviews to get responses and properly tell both sides of DeMaio’s story.”

A rough history

The animosity between Maas and DeMaio dates back several years. The two men had a famous row during a Nov. 15, 2010, City Council meeting over legislation that then-Assemblyman Fletcher successfully carried to eliminate the cap on how much the Centre City Development Corp. could spend on downtown redevelopment. DeMaio grilled Maas, who was CCDC chairman at the time, for refusing to say how the bill he consulted on had come about.